Maximum distance for vaccume

[The Sweet Spot]

I would like to add vaccume to my bush. My big problem is that I am running out of cash after expanding my bush. I could afford a guzzler or something similar for this year, and then upgrade later. (I have about $1000.00 left to buy jars) My biggest issue is that we live off the grid and have no power at our sap shack. I do have 110 at the house, about 700' from the shack, the bush I am going to tap is about 800' from the shack. Could I leave the pump at the battery house and run the main line 1500'. Or would I be better off waiting to get a gas vaccume setup next year? Any help would be great.

[Dennis H.]

Yes you can run a mainline just for vac that distance. There is a formula that you can use to figure out what size pipe to run to keep the cfm's up over that distance.
I don't know it right now. Others on here do though.

[maple flats]

Search out Cornel's Steve Childs guideline for vacuum. Someplace he has a chart for pipe size and vacuum transfer based on distance. One thing is for sure, pipe size is very important. I was totally off grid for about 5 yrs. Running a vacuum pump will be a rather large load on your battery bank. Are you solar, wind, combined or other? If just solar you might opt not to run when you are not generating power unless you have a large enough KWH battery bank to carry it.
The distances you give are very common in vacuum systems, but the tubing must be the right size. Even an old dairy vacuum on a gas motor is way better than no vacuum. Many such pumps can be found for $100-400 or so. A gas motor will use up more unless you have one you can re-assign for maple season. I use (for another year) 2 old Alamo vac pump. I drive them with 6.5 HP Hondas (pricy but good), you may have to go a cheaper motor at first. If you have the KWH capacity to run an electric motor that may be better. How many taps are you talking? Remember, every inch of vacuum you are able to get at the tap, yields 5% more sap. This is compounded, so even as little as 10 inches yields your flow times 1.05 x 1.05 x 1.05 .... etc until you have gone 10 times. If you can get more vacuum keep multiplying as many times as the number of inches vac you are getting at the tap hole. Pipe the right size is more important than pump size. Even a huge capacity pump on tubing that is undersized gets no more than a small pump on the same size line.
If you must start very basic, do so, then upgrade when you are able. Realize that dairy pumps are designed for 15" vacuum and trying to go over that compounds the cooling issue. This being said, I run up to 20" on one of my Alamo Rotary vane pumps (the other needs a bigger engine before I can get over 17", one more year)
Notice, I keep saying "vacuum at the tap", this is because the vacuum at the pump does little if not enough of it reaches the tap hole.

[DrTimPerkins]

You haven't said how many taps you have, but I wouldn't try running a mainline from the battery house to the sugarhouse and out into the woods for that distance (1,500 ft) if using a Guzzler (Sap Puller) type system. These simply don't generate enough CFM. Most of the small amount of CFM you would generate would be lost in line friction over that distance. You would at least want some type of dairy pump or vane pump instead. Might be better to save your $ and do it right next year.

[The Sweet Spot]

I only have 180 taps at this time but, we are expanding into an area of our bush that has a potential for another 1000 taps. We are only using solar and a generator with a battery bank and inverter at this time. Our Battery bank is 48 volt with 8 6 volt trojan L16's. Our inverter will produce 12000 watts at surge and 4800 continous. We have a wind generator but have not gotten the varience we need to put it up. Even though we do not have a neighbor for over 3/4 of a mile in all directions. LOL I would really like to start into the new area but would like to do it right. I do have good hills though so I could just tap for natural vacuume. Most of my research has led me to beleive that we could add vacuume and nearly double the production of our taps. I think at this time I am going to look more into a gas powered vacuume pump set up I have the abilty to build most anything but not always the $.
Thank you for your great information.

[unc23win]

Your research is right you should double your sap with vacuum. I think you are probably best off looking for a gas powered vacuum like you said. There was a gas powered pump in the classifieds on here not sure if its still available or near you. If you had enough power and a large enough pump you could run a vacuum line from the pump maybe at your house out to the bush where it could then be hooked to your tubing system and the extractor, but that would be over $1000 most likely.

[rayi]

Just found this thread. I was looking at vaccume distances Is it possible to run vacuum 1/2 mile to where electricity is. I'll have 300 taps Real flat bush bu elevation from the bush is 60 to 70 feet. There is no electric except at the house. So my question other than the first is it possible, would it be cost effective or would running a electric line be possible and cost effective.

[500592]

Cheaper to run a vacuum line if 300 taps is maximum I would run 1.5 or 1.25.

[rayi]

Thank you I never imagined that you could run vaccume that far

[500592]

If it slope towards the shack you could locate the releaser there then there would be no gathering or tanks to mess with in the woods.

[BreezyHill]

Send me an email and I will send you Steve's latest paper on cfm transfer and calculation sheet. It does not paste onto this site well at all and is several pages long. It lists cfm transfer for 6000 feet.
I ran electric to the woods along time ago. It needs to be buried in conduit. My dad and I flew it on insulators and found that squirrels like romex better than tubing; fried three over the five years.
Only ladders in the woods now...no more hauling or tanks in the woods...to much traffic in the woods causing ruts and compaction the old way. Erosion on the slopes was a problem.

Ben